In particular, the embodiments of present invention are related to a shaving blade cartridge that includes a housing extending along a longitudinal axis, having a top side, a bottom side opposite to the top side, and first and second longitudinal sides, each extending longitudinally along the longitudinal axis between the top and bottom sides, the housing being provided with a through hole extending transversally to the longitudinal axis through the housing between the top side and the bottom side, at least one cutting blade mounted in the housing between the first and second longitudinal sides, and having a cutting edge extending along the longitudinal axis, a clip retaining the at least one cutting blade in the housing and having a first leg, a second leg and a clip body extending between the first and second legs.
The through hole of the housing is an aperture which passes through the housing from the top side of the housing to the bottom side of the housing and which is completely surrounded by material when viewed from the top side or from a cross-section.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,286,354 discloses a razor having two clips, each clip comprising a pair of legs that extend through a pair of through holes provided in the housing. The two pairs of through holes in the housing require important structural modifications of the housing of known cartridges. Moreover, the assembly of the clip can be difficult. Indeed, during the manufacturing process, both legs of the clip have to be in correspondence with two different through holes, which require strict tolerances to be applied to the clip and to the through holes. The embodiments of the present invention disclosed in this application are clearly distinguishable from U.S. Pat. No. 8,286,354, which requires two pairs of apertures extending through the housing from the top surface to the bottom surface, with each pair of apertures having one aperture in front of the cutting edge and one aperture behind the cutting edge, and a pair of spaced apart clips each having a pair of legs extending through the corresponding pair of apertures. The embodiments of the present invention require only one through hole on each side of the blade assembly for one leg of the clip to go through; the second leg of the clip goes around the cartridge body.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,270,268 describes a cartridge having a clip retaining at least a blade. The clip disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,270,268 surrounds the housing and is received at least in grooves provided in the housing. The installation of such clip is easy, since it surrounds the housing. However, such clip is easily movable and can unintentionally be removed by a user during shaving. Indeed, when the clips are removed, the blades are not retained in the housing resulting in their free movement.
Various solutions have been used in order to avoid such drawbacks.
W09610473 discloses a cartridge having a clip which is wrapped around the housing. Means are disposed adjacent to end portions of the clip. The means inhibit movement of the clip end portions relative to the housing in a direction transverse to the longitudinal direction of the blade to prevent separation of the end portions of the clip one from another. Such means are an improvement. However, the risk of unintentionally removing the clip still exists. Moreover, the assembly of such clip can be difficult, since the inhibiting means have to match with complementary portions on the housing.
W09717174 discloses a razor cartridge with a clip being forced through two openings. More particularly, each leg of the clip extends through an opening in the shaving blade cartridge. This arrangement enables the clip to be kept firmly in place. However, it also necessitates various requirements regarding mounting and requires important structural modifications of the housing of known cartridges.
To avoid a complicated assembly, W09955499 discloses a cartridge having an annular clip with two legs which cooperate with two recesses in the housing in order to retain the clip.
However, the annular clip lowers the shaving surface, which is the active surface during the shaving.
The embodiments of the present invention have objectives to mitigate the drawbacks discussed above.